Pretentious and Over-hyped

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2005)

Having not shared the large scale disappointment for Pearl Harbour i was rather looking forward to Bay's next big screen outing not to mention the exciting prospect of Scarlet Johansen and Ewan Mcgregor. I was then amazed to learn that the film featured both Sean Bean AND Steve Buscemi - two of my favourite actors. I was starting to expect great things from this film. However the omens began after viewing the trailer - though the film looked terribly exciting i couldn't help feeling sleight Battle Royale vibes stream off the screen but i decided to ignore it when walking into the cinema to actually watch the film itself. However what I was presented with was what one would find when The Matrix and The Truman Show were mixed. The basic idea of the film was so similar to Truman it was uncanny, people living in a controlled environment, blissfully unaware of their captivity with everything running smoothly by a scientific big shot (Bean) until.... someone starts getting wise to everything (McGregor). My reference to the Matrix comes with the shots of "fields" of humans being grown and harvested, shots of people being given birth in water and "pods" of people...definitely some resemblance there somewhere. One good thing about the film was the chemistry between McGregor and Johansen, the pair together acted very well, perhaps in order to make up for their less than impressive individual performances. Bean is yet again incredible, his accent pushing the crisp, dark tones of his character though could still see some Trevelyan there somewhere...not that that is a bad thing! Buscemi, again, inspiring! Buscemi's talent ranges from his famed wild eyed expressions to his incredulous remarks about the various situations he is put in helping the fugitive pair. I was disappointed being quite a big Mcgregor fan ever since Star Wars, in which i thought he was superb, he actually did better as the part of his Scottish counterpart, a fair few laughs between the pair. Overall, get it on DVD if you looking for a night time movie filler, but not worth seeing at the cinema.